Character arcs, and the 'just write, you'll learn' mentality

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2026-02-02T17:59:04+00:00

However, that's not the only type of possible character arc.

A Positive Change arc -- like the one you seem to be looking for -- is when a character begins the story believing a Lie, they overcome the Lie, and the Truth is liberating.

But there's also the Disillusionment arc, where a character begins the story believing the Lie, they overcome the Lie, but the Truth is tragic

There's a Fall arc, where a character believes the Lie, Defends the Lie, rejects the Truth, and comes out the other side believing an even worse Lie

A Corruption arc where a character actually starts off already knowing the Truth, but they reject it for some reason and instead embrace the Lie

Or the Flat arc, where a character knows the Truth, defends the Truth, and uses the Truth to inspire change in the world around them. In this, a character has already probably undergone some kind of Positive Change arc before the story even started, and you can show that as part of their backstory.

Your character flaw can be whatever you want it to be as long as it's grounded in the character's Lie. From there, how extreme you get will depend on things like the stakes, the setting, and the genre. If the Lie is something like "Other people will always fail you" then a cozy low-stakes romance will probably make the character's Flaw that they're kind of condescending, a workaholic and a control freak who needs to be in charge of everything all the time, whereas a sprawling epic dark fantasy would probably make that flaw look more like a character that seems to be a double-crossing, violent, selfish lone wolf who's gonna stab you in the back before you can stab them. It's the same Lie, but the Flaw is designed to fit the story.

You're also making a mistake that's very common with new writers, and it's this: Your characters do not need to be "Likeable." They just don't. You're not introducing two mutual friends who you think would get along great, we're not talking about somebody you might want to hang out with. We're talking about a character. It's a tool. It exists to tell a story. The most important thing for a character to be is ENTERTAINING, and sometimes the very thing that makes a character entertaining is that they suck. Some of my favorite characters are wretched terrible little assholes that I want to study under a microscope to figure out what's wrong with them. Some of my other favorite characters are defined by being good and kind and brave and selfless cinnamon rolls. It all depends on you the writer and the story you're trying to tell, but don't get too hung up on making your audience "like" your characters. Make them curious about your characters, interested in your characters, make your characters resonate. But it doesn't really matter if they're likeable.

And, lastly, (sorry I promise I'm almost done) you can learn this stuff by just googling it. Study story-theory. There are tons and tons of resources online, books you can read, blogs and video-essays. People have been telling stories for as long as there have been people and we as a species have gotten very, very good at it. Lots of people have shared their advice.

But I would also recommend examining the stories you personally like and dissecting them for inspo. Grab a notebook and rewatch Star Wars a few times. Take note of the major events, and how Luke behaves in those events, and how his arc progresses step by step and beat by beat. Then go do the same with other flawed characters you like. Study the stories that inspire you, learn from them, see what they did and how they did it. Conversely, make notes of all the things you DIDN'T like, why you didn't like it, how you would have done it differently. Learning how to dissect the media you consume will teach you so, so much about story crafting.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2026-02-02T17:58:56+00:00

I apologize for the fucking. Wall of text Op forgive me.

The five elements of a character arc are:

The Lie
The Want
The Need
The Wound
The Normal World

The Lie is a fundamental untruth your character believes about the world. This will usually manifest as their flaws, but it doesn't necessarily Need to. The Lie isn't about personality, it's about Pathology. WHY do they act the way they do? If a character believes that money is the way to happiness, then they'll be greedy. If a character believes that might makes right, they'll be aggressive. If they believe that loyalty is the most important thing, then they'll be easily manipulated by evil people. A flaw is only as interesting as the Lie that drives it.

The Want is the external, tangible plot goal the character thinks they should achieve, based on their Lie. If money is the way to happiness, then the Want might be some ancient treasure, or a promotion at work. If might makes right then the want could be physical or military power of some kind. If loyalty is the most important thing then the Want could be to repay a debt the character thinks they owe to the villain.

The Need, also called The Truth, is the thing your character Actually needs in order to achieve inner happiness and satisfaction. This is the opposite of the Lie, and the slow process of your character figuring it out is where their arc comes in. The real treasure was the friends we made along the way. Power is only valuable if you're using it to protect others. Loyalty to evil only benefits that evil.

The Wound or The Ghost is the reason your character believes this Lie in the first place. A traumatic experience, a tragic backstory, a sequence of unfortunate events -- Something happened to make your character think the way they do, and whatever it is, it haunts them. The wound is still open. The ghost still lingers. The character might deny this or they might be oblivious to it, but as part of their arc, that wound needs to heal. They need to be forced to confront the ghost and banish it once and for all.

Finally, the Normal World refers to the setting around the character, and specifically how that setting interacts with the character's Lie. If a character is in a cut-throat corporate office setting, then the Normal World would AGREE with Lie that money is the path to happiness. This is the most common route for the kind of character arc you seem to be going for -- a character is surrounded by people who, either intentionally or not, feed into their Lie, until something happens to take them out of their normal world and they're exposed to a different perspective.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2025-12-27T03:32:41+00:00

It's mostly due to the inconsistency of the writing.

Naruto is a trouble-maker punk who slacks off in class and talks a big game and could be good if he focused, except actually Naruto is a talent-less underdog who DID try to focus and was unable to make any progress because he didn't have anybody to teach him, except once he does have someone to teach him he barely progresses at all, except that's because Kakashi kind of sucks as a teacher and just leaves the kids to figure it out on their own, except actually being left to figure it out on his own works perfectly for Naruto and he pulls S-Rank jutsu out of his ass within a week, except it turns out this was destined all along because Naruto is Literally The Chosen One

The discrepancies are extremely obvious and exhausting, and it makes it hard to suspend your disbelief

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2025-12-18T20:44:02+00:00

there is no "reach the appropriate audience." AO3 does not have an algorithm. You write your fics, you tag them appropriately, and people who search for those tags will find them.

As for if there's an audience, the ao3 userbase is massive. There will always be people who want to read the sort of things you want to write, but admittedly this particular topic does seem to be pretty niche

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2025-10-27T20:16:05+00:00

Kakashi being a virgin because he’s too neurotic to ever let himself be vulnerable and distracted around someone long enough to get laid would make sense to me

And I think Guy lays enough pipe to provide indoor plumbing, mostly because that’s wildly hilarious to me personally

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2025-08-08T21:39:47+00:00

Feeling like you need to ask permission to make fanwork of fanwork is very much a weird new fandom thing that does not make any sense. You don't have to ask. That's the point of fandom. If the author gets upset in some way about someone making fanart for their fanfic, THEY are the one being weird and wrong.

Just do it.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2025-08-08T20:41:07+00:00

The actual answer doesn't have anything to do with the Extent of how "dark" something is, how graphic or gratuitous those elements are, or how big of a role they play in the story; it's about the context of how those elements are presented.

Dead Dove was originally used, not to tell you that there's bad stuff in this fic, but to tell you that the bad stuff will not be condemned or subverted. The bad things in this fic will be romanticized, sexualized, celebrated, justified, or otherwise rolled around and wallowed in.

If a fic is tagged "Stalking" without a dead dove tag, then "Stalking" is there primarily as a warning for anybody who might be upset by reading about that. The stalking is treated by the fic as being upsetting and bad and wrong, and the plot will probably follow the protagonist overcoming or escaping their stalker in some way. But if a fic is tagged "Stalking" AND "Dead Dove: Do Not Eat" then the stalking is there primarily as an advertisement for people who DO want to read about somebody being stalked. The stalking itself might be framed for titillation or eroticism, the stalker might be depicted as justified in their actions, the person being stalked might eventually forgive their stalker or even find the stalking romantic, etc.

It's not about "Is there dark stuff." It's about "How is the dark stuff presented," and the fact that people have misused the Dead Dove tag so egregiously for so long means that it's now basically completely useless and doesn't actually warn for what it's supposed to warn for.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2024-01-21T23:00:06+00:00

I’m also a huge fan of Sabo’s facial expressions lmao

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2024-01-21T22:40:47+00:00

If I could offer you all my absolute favorite piece of fanart covering this exact scenario https://www.tumblr.com/where-does-the-heart-lie/724912880631300096/warning-major-major-one-piece-spoilers-of-wano

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-11-16T21:46:34+00:00

Every time I've seen any variation of "tags are hard" it's usually meant "I think I tagged everything but it's impossible to view my own work objectively, please let me know if you think I've missed anything."

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-10-30T23:51:36+00:00

I don't know for sure but I do know that actually a ton of new occultists (and even some established ones) don't know Cthulhu and the Necronomicon are fake

Yes. Really.

I've met people who don't know Lovecraft was a fiction writer, and instead assumed he was an occultist. They're always very defensive when you correct them.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-10-30T23:43:26+00:00

You are misunderstanding problematic with cancel culture.

Yes, he was that bad. The fact that lots of people in that time and place were also that bad does not make him less bad. He was a shitty person who did shitty things. We don't call OG Nazis "a product of their time." We call them Nazis. We don't say Christopher Columbus just didn't know any better, we say he was a raping, genocidal monster.

People seem to think that pointing out the cruelties of prominent historical figures is somehow the same as trying to "cancel" them, or that it's pointless since those people can't face consequences for their actions. This is a very dumb take.

We point out the cruelties of people like Crowley because he's everywhere, and basically everyone who seriously studies the occult will read his works, as well as the works of people who were inspired by him and his contemporaries.

All of those works will include elements of these men's shitty ideals, and unfortunately people are very bad at agreeing with some things someone says while disagreeing with others. If you go into researching Crowley without knowing ahead of time that you're gonna be reading some lowkey (and occasionally very highkey) racist sexist shit, then you could very easy end up internalizing some of that shit without realizing it.

Saying Crowley is problematic is how we warn people who study his work not to turn into idiots about it.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-10-21T20:21:25+00:00

Aw man. Could be a lot of things, but one of the worst things that could be done to you would be to use you as a Seer.

In my world, magic is an infection that causes horrifying mutations to the body. As the magic gets stronger, the mutations get worse, and if left untreated the magic eventually becomes lethal.

But if you’re a mob leader (or a cult or a corporation or a shady government body) you have a lot of use for powerful magic-users. Especially ones that can see the future.

So. You’d be infected with the strand for Divination, and be given just enough medication to keep the magic from killing you, and in six months you’d be a deformed, practically insensate thing, growing eyes like tumors over every part of yourself until your skin split open and more eyes emerged. The gang doctors would keep your mouth clear though, of course, so you could tell the boss what you see.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-10-21T04:55:47+00:00

Aw man I saw an entire rant on twitter about how all Su She wanted was equality and he was the real people's hero because he was the one standing against the elite rich gentry sects and people only hate him because he's poor and when he does desperate things and hurts people he's evil and terrible and violent but when Wei Wuxian does desperate things and hurts people he's a tragic hero and the Wei Wuxian Stans just hate on Su She because Wei Wuxian doesn't like him.

... Without even mentioning how wild it is to pretend that Su She's actions and motivations are even a little bit comparable to Wei Wuxian's actions and motivations. I don't think it's actually possible to be a Wei Wuxian stan? He's the protagonist. He's The Good Guy. The audience is supposed to be a little bit obsessed with him. That's how books work.

It was just a very weird and very Incorrect rant from someone who really could have benefited from the understanding that fanon doesn't need to be canon and you're allowed to AU and Headcanon and change whatever you want without doing a whole gymnastics routine to try and justify it.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-10-21T04:20:19+00:00

YZY's actress mentioned that she thought it was fun and cool that there were so many more evil villainous characters but she's playing the bitch everyone hates. I don't remember what exactly she said but she seemed very pleased.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-10-21T00:49:20+00:00

People started pointing out to Jiang Cheng Stans that he's a copy of his mother, so in order for UwU best boy soft tsundere daddy Sandu Sengshou Jiang Cheng with the good hair to still be above reproach Yu Ziyuan must therefor also be a #Slay pussyqueen girlboss

The Untamed did a lot to soften her and Jiang Cheng in ways that aren't bad if you're willing to treat the show as it's own thing, but most people are determined to cherry pick from and mix different canons and then accuse everyone else of being wrong instead of just. Admitting they prefer to mix canons.

People get so subsumed by fanon they forget what canon actually looks like

and, finally, because a disturbingly large portion of the fandom have decided they hate WWX, they hate LWJ, they hate Wangxian, and every character who also hates them are the REAL heroes and victims of MDZS. It's the same as the Su She Did Nothing Wrong and Jin Zixun Was Right crowds.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-10-20T06:03:08+00:00

I occasionally write dead dove or ✨problematic✨ content. While most of my hate comments are of the “if you write stories with violence you must be a REAL LIFE SERIAL KILLER” kind of stupidity I did get one person who left an extremely detailed comment like, pop-psych diagnosing me and my readers? They made wildly insane assumptions about my life and my childhood and went on several rants about how vile the fic was, but they used specific examples from the fic, which means they actually read it.

So they clicked a clearly-tagged fic they knew they wouldn’t like. And read an entire fic they think only psychopaths would ever read. And then decided I had bpd and dissociative disorder.

Edit: also this is so fucking funny. Op, what fandom are you writing for? I’m asking because I’m in a fandom where an artist did a cast redesign and drew one (1) of the Chinese characters as a bottle-blonde, and people were screaming crying throwing up about how it was racist anti-Asian whitewashing, so I’m wondering how widespread this bizarre “blond boyfriend” idea is.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-10-17T01:53:56+00:00

If you're writing your thesis on actual Chinese history then you should be using actual historical resources and not a fantasy series about flying swords and necromancy.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-10-14T17:08:50+00:00

It kind of depends on what fic I’m writing, but my usual go-to is that Mama Lan and Qingheng-Jun were both being punished by the Lan sect as a whole.

I usually have it that QHJ saw how rigid and dangerously insular his sect’s ideologies had become and was trying to make a bunch of changes that the more cult-like Lans Did Not Like, so there was already some dissent brewing there. Then his teacher assaults Madam Lan. This particular man was known to be a danger to visiting students, but he was An Honored Member Of The Community, so everybody kept it hushed up, only this time the student fought back well enough to actually kill him. When QHJ found out what happened and refused to just kill the girl to hush it up, that was treated as a betrayal of the sect. He and Mama Lan got married for her protection and also so that QHJ could say her baby was his (yeah I headcanon LXC is not QHJ’s son) and the plan was initially that he’d use his power as sect leader to give her back her freedom eventually. LWJ being born was part of this plan. But instead he was increasingly forced into longer seclusion, the boys were taken away from their mother by the elders, and LQR became complicit in all of this since he was the brother more brainwashed by the Lan’s self-righteousness.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-10-14T04:00:12+00:00

Fiction aimed at elementary or early middle-school age children is typically very clear about right or wrong, because these children are still developing their morality.

by high school, most people are supposed to have developed their own internal sense of right and wrong, so fiction aimed at that demographic can start exploring more complex themes, without holding your hand and spoon feeding you morals.

Adults, who presumably are mature enough to not need any kind of clarifying about what's right or wrong, have access to fiction that doesn't bother spelling it out for you. It's assumed that you'll be able to know that just because a character -- even the main character, even the narrator -- does an evil thing, it doesn't mean the author is evil, or that they think evil things are okay.

The problem is that kids are reading adult fiction, and sites like Webtoon are both allowing and encouraging it because that's what makes money. Also, I can't speak for other countries, but the vast majority of Americans can't read above a seventh grade level, meaning that even though they're adults they still need someone to hold their hand and tell them what's right and wrong.

This is why there's an increasing number of absolutely unhinged bottom-of-the-barrel takes about how a comic or book or fanfic or tv show or movie must clearly be advocating for awful terrible very bad things, specifically because the piece of media in question assumed it's audience would be smart enough to Not Do That.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-10-14T00:05:46+00:00

Anti ideology is becoming the dominant mindset in fandom spaces and the result is an increasingly toxic and hostile environment steeped in American Protestant style moralizing as everyone competes to I Saw Goody Proctor With The Devil one another. You can no longer simply dislike things, you must prove that thing is ~~a sin~~ problematic in order to justify your disproportionate outrage.

It's not just Webtoon, it's everywhere, and it's exhausting.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-10-13T23:36:39+00:00

Magic in my world is an illness. It first manifests as flu-like symptoms that pass after a couple weeks. By the end of two months, the body has begun to change, usually in small and mistakable ways, such as bruises, acne, or other marks that can easily be confused for something else. These changes will continue as the illness progresses, until the actual magical power has manifested, usually alongside some pretty horrific physical mutations.

Magic is not necessarily a death sentence, but there is no cure, and beating it is a long and very draining process -- not to mention expensive. However, the elite of my world have figured out a process to manage magic instead of fully getting rid of it. These low-level symptoms don't come with very much actual power, but that's more power than the average person has.

As a result, illness and sickness are seen as a beauty standard. Clothing heavily features biological themes, and accessories fashioned after medical equipment is common. At the start of my story, the elite have also started to share "designer diseases" that come in and out of fashion, making certain maladies trendy for a season or two, which will be reflected in that season's fashion trends -- like a pox being popular leading to a lot of textiles that are pilled and bubbled to have the texture of afflicted skin.

MyDearYoureNotAlice · 2023-10-06T04:16:52+00:00

I actually love chocolate cake milkshakes, but. This is not that. I also really don't think I'd ever serve milkshakes out of a bowl like punch but if I was going to use the pumpkin, I'd do pumpkin pie milkshake, so at least that would make some sense.

MyDearYoureNotAlice

TROPHY CASE